The evils of anarchy have been portrayed with all the imagery of
language in the growing colors of eloquence; the affrighted mind is
thence led to clasp the new Constitution as the instrument of
deliverance, as the only avenue to safety and happiness. To avoid
the possible and transitory evils of one extreme, it is seduced into
the certain and permanent misery necessarily attendant on the other.
A state of anarchy from its very nature can never be of long
continuance; the greater its violence the shorter the duration.
Order and security are immediately sought by the distracted people
beneath the shelter of equal laws and the salutary restraints of
regular government; and if this be not attainable, absolute power is
assumed by the one, or a few, who shall be the most enterprising and
successful. If anarchy, therefore, were the inevitable consequence
of rejecting the new Constitution, it would be infinitely better to
incur it, for even then there would be at least the chance of a good
government rising out of licentiousness. But to rush at once into
despotism because there is a bare possibility of anarchy ensuing
from the rejection, or from what is yet more visionary, the small
delay that would be occasioned by a revision and correction of the
proposed system of government is so superlatively weak, so fatally
blind, that it is astonishing any person of common understanding
should suffer such an imposition to have the least influence on his
judgment; still more astonishing that so flimsy and deceptive a
doctrine should make converts among the enlightened freemen of
America, who have so long enjoyed the blessings of liberty. But when
I view among such converts men otherwise pre-eminent it raises a
blush for the weakness of humanity that these, her brightest
ornaments, should be so dimsighted to what is self-evident to most
men, that such imbecility of judgment should appear where so much
perfection was looked for. This ought to teach us to depend more on
our own judgment and the nature of the case than upon the opinions
of the greatest and best of men, who, from constitutional
infirmities or particular situations, may sometimes view an object
through a delusive medium; but the opinions of great men are more
frequently the dictates of ambition or private interest.

The source of the apprehensions of this so much dreaded anarchy
would upon investigation be found to arise from the artful
suggestions of designing men, and not from a rational probability
grounded on the actual state of affairs. The least reflection is
sufficient to detect the fallacy to show that there is no one
circumstance to justify the prediction of such an event. On the
contrary a short time will evince, to the utter dismay and confusion
of the conspirators, that a perseverance in cramming down their
scheme of power upon the freemen of this State [Pennsylvania] will
inevitably produce an anarchy destructive of their darling
domination, and may kindle a flame prejudicial to their safety. They
should be cautious not to trespass too far on the forbearance of
freemen when wresting their dearest concerns, but prudently retreat
from the gathering storm.

The other specter that has been raised to terrify and alarm the
people out of the exercise of their judgment on this great occasion,
is the dread of our splitting into separate confederacies or
republics, that might become rival powers and consequently liable to
mutual wars from the usual motives of contention. This is an event
still more improbable than the foregoing. It is a presumption
unwarranted, either by the situation of affairs, or the sentiments
of the people; no disposition leading to it exists; the advocates of
the new constitution seem to view such a separation with horror, and
its opponents are strenuously contending for a confederation that
shall embrace all America under its comprehensive and salutary
protection. This hobgoblin appears to have sprung from the deranged
brain of Publius, [The Federalist] a New York writer, who, mistaking
sound for argument, has with Herculean labor accumulated myriads of
unmeaning sentences, and mechanically endeavored to force conviction
by a torrent of misplaced words. He might have spared his readers
the fatigue of wading through his long-winded disquisitions on the
direful effects of the contentions of inimical states, as totally
inapplicable to the subject he was professedly treating; this writer
has devoted much time, and wasted more paper in combating chimeras
of his own creation. However, for the sake of argument, I will admit
that the necessary consequence of rejecting or delaying the
establishment of the new constitution would be the dissolution of
the union, and the institution of even rival and inimical republics;
yet ought such an apprehension, if well founded, to drive us into
the fangs of despotism? Infinitely preferable would be occasional
wars to such an event. The former, although a severe scourge, is
transient in its continuance, and in its operation partial, but a
small proportion of the community are exposed to its greatest
horrors, and yet fewer experience its greatest evils; the latter is
permanent and universal misery, without remission or exemption. As
passing clouds obscure for a time the splendor of the sun, so do
wars interrupt the welfare of mankind; but despotism is a settled
gloom that totally extinguishes happiness. Not a ray of comfort can
penetrate to cheer the dejected mind; the goad of power with
unabating rigor insists upon the utmost exaction; like a merciless
taskmaster, [it] is continually inflicting the lash, and is never
satiated with the feast of unfeeling domination, or the most abject
servility.

The celebrated Lord Kaims, whose disquisitions of human nature
evidence extraordinary strength of judgment and depth of
investigation, says that a continual civil war, which is the most
destructive and horrible scene of human discord, is preferable to
the uniformity of wretchedness and misery attendant upon despotism;
of all possible evils, as I observed in my first number, this is the
worst and the most to be dreaded.

I congratulate my fellow citizens that a good government, the
greatest earthly blessing, may be so easily obtained, that our
circumstances are so favorable, that nothing but the folly of the
conspirators can produce anarchy or civil war, which would presently
terminate in their destruction and the permanent harmony of the
state, alone interrupted by their ambitious machinations.